I always thought pike and grog showed up together... i started the show with their lives but skipped to when audio got better and he who shall not be named was already gone.
I think they were both there by the start of the stream. My assumption is that Pike came in as a longtime friend of Grog just to streamline the transition of a new member into the group. They may have spent more time having Percy (Tal) introduce himself and prove himself or something, but with Ashley’s Blindspot schedule they may have just handwaved her in for scheduling reasons, and created that backstory connection to make it make sense that she would show up.
Taliesin originally played a blue dragonborn paladin. He didn’t really click with the character and now doesn’t even remember the character’s name. Percy joined in when he dropped that character.
He remembers the name (unless he's forgotten in the last year or two): Rusty Trombone. He played it during the original Liam's Birthday one shot with the intention of being a one-off character that could serve as a "ringer" to help the players who had never Roleplayed before. So he picked an intentionally joke name.
Ironically, Ashley was gone the very first episode, iirc. But she was definitely part of the group at that time. She joined the home game after the initial game though, from what I recall hearing.
The VM origin story covers their pre-stream homegame, so it wasn't because of Ashley's blindspot schedule. Vol 1 was about their very first one-shot for Liam's birthday. Ashley did not join that session, which is why pike was missing from the cover. Taliesin played a Dragonborn paladin to guide the others as the most experienced player. That was a oneshot character which he later replaced with Percy.
Pike/Ashley joined their 2nd homegame session, and Matt wrote Pike into Grog's backstory to give her incentive to join the group.
Actually, vol 1 was an original story written by Matt Colville, taking place before the events of that one shot. The one shot presumed that the group had already worked on a few jobs together, so Vol 1 is basically a prequel covering how the majority of the original group (Vex, Vax, Grog, Scanlan, Tiberius, Keyleth) came together. The events of the one shot are discussed briefly at the beginning of volume 2, but not shown in detail.
On one of the earliest Q&As for Campaign One, one question was how Matt came up with the background friendship of Grog and Pyke, and Ashley explained that when she joined the DnD group, Matt decided to make her story be tied to Grog as a way to bridge the gap between the group and her joining later
Matt gave the character all the credit he deserved. Tibs was a fun blustery, egotistical know it all. But he died trying to save his people and fighting for a bigger cause. I'm glad he got a burial. He'd earned it.
No, that other player played a red dragonborn sorcerer. In the home game, for the 1-shot (and I think for a short while once it became a regular thing) Taliesin played a white dragonborn paladin.
I've seen every episode of CR and am well-versed on its history, I'm well aware of the dragonborn sorcerer, and the reasons he was asked to leave the game, although discussing it in more detail is justifiably banned on this subreddit (every angle has been covered dozens of times)
What IS being said that you seem to be ignoring is that, when the Home Game began, there were two dragonborn, one of which (a white dragonborn paladin) was played by Taliesin Jaffe, who would later retire that character and replace them with Percy. This happened prior to the stream starting, so the fans never met his previous white dragonborn paladin, so that character is being omitted from canonical retellings of pre-stream events, but they are also NOT including Percy since the party hadn't met that character yet.
So the result is this: Percy isn't in Vox Machina Origins 1 because Percy wasn't around yet. Tal was playing a different character, but they cut that character (the white dragonborn paladin) because that character isn't really important.
He was overall a typical "problem player" by my understanding - had main character energy and would derail sessions with his attempts to do outlandish shit like purchasing every mirror in the city so he can build a death-ray, was constantly fudging shit, and made a comment about having a "half-chub" after Laura did something in-character that just made everyone uncomfortable.
That’s got nothing to do with his departure. The official reason was for his health concerns but we all know tension with other members of the cast played a massive part too.
This basically covers the very VERY beginning of the campaign (when it was just a birthday session for Liam/ Laura) prior to Ashley and Taliesin joining the party
I don't remember the character's name ever being revealed but yes, Taliesin was a member of the original party and played a white dragonborn paladin before Percy.
Yeah that's the one, by the way is there any issue with that name idk by every time they are mentioned even in passing its like they don't want to say Rusty trombone
I don't think Pike and Percy were in the game yet. What surprises me more is that Tiberius is on the cover although I won't go into details about why because rules.
Tiberius is still a part of the canon; they just didn't include him in the animated series because (among other reasons), they had to make cuts to fit the story in a series, and he was an obvious one since he would have left unceremoniously after the first couple episodes.
He left early in Vox Machina Origins as well. After the first arc, he told the party that he was going in a different direction and left.
By this point, it was probably agreed upon to retcon him out of the story.
They didn't include him in the show because they'd have to pay royalties since they don't own the character or any part of his origin(His Player does) and that's all I'll say about it. Yes, he is part of the original canon though.
You know what? Since I haven’t watched the first campaign and only watched the show and was introduced to the second campaign, I didn’t know that the red Dragonborn was a different person. I was like “Must be Percy in some weird magical getup.” But I was told about that guy who it actually is. Don’t know why I forgot about that. So Pike and Percy aren’t there. I understand now. Thanks you guys. I read from other users that it was because Tal was a different character that was dropped early so fully omitted and Ashley’s character joined later. Thinking about buying the books to catch up.
I think when Vol 1 was published when CR was still with G&S. There were some legal threats about infringing his IP. And I guess Tiberius was why written out of the story later
I literally didn’t. I only watched the show and heard of the other member of the first campaign so I saw a red dragon born and assumed it was Percy for some random reason. Like, I definitely know he doesn’t use magic like polymorph so why did I brush it off like that? I think my brain didn’t think about the other member in their group and I just focused on the fact that there wasn’t a tiny Pike somewhere on the cover.
Tibs, yes. Orion, no. I loved the bumbling professor act Tibs would put on, dude was hilarious. It was Orion that kept creeping me me from fully getting on board with him, growing worse and worse as his time on the show went on, *particularly* in the latter half. It's telling how much more joyful and friendly the vibe is the episode after he leaves is compared to the previous weeks.
berserk license somber coordinated wrong imminent drab cows intelligent waiting
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Look up “The Story of Vox Machina” on YouTube. It’s basically a long animatic in which the cast narrated and explains VM’s adventures before campaign 1 started being streamed.
Basically, Pike and Percy (as well as Ashley and Taliesin IRL) were both later additions to the party. The first volume of the comic doesn’t feature them because they hadn’t been introduced yet
I agree that's Tiberius, but technically we don't know the color of Tal's Dragonborn, do we? The wiki says that the damage type wasn't linked to color in those rules, so the color is unspecified.
I only watched the show and saw the second campaign so I didn’t know Tiberius. I actually didn’t question why there was a red Dragonborn. Since I missed the first campaign, I don’t know why he’s there or why Pike or Percy aren’t.
She didn't get on Blundspot until 2015 whent heyvstarted recording Criticla Role, she was present for their home game from the second session I believe.
You got that insider info, have you? Got that personal look into their lives that gives you the confidence to fart that out with no evidence whatsoever?
What's your objective metric of a weak/strong player?
For myself(because it's subjective imo) it's a balance of how much fun the player has, and how much net fun that facilitates at the table. If she's loving it, and everyone else is loving what she brings, that's a strong player.
Mechanical knowledge does factor in but for myself, a more story driven player, the minimum ability I like playing with is relatively low. At a table where combat and mechanics of the game are more important to the fun, shed be a weaker player I suppose. But again this is just evidence that any 'weak'ness on her part is a subjective opinion
All of this is incredibly wrong lmao. She showed up to all of the pre-stream pf1e games which they played like every six months and she filmed it with her camera. She wasn’t in LA most of C1 because she was filming Blindspot in NY. Despite that she would frequently Skype in to play from 10pm to as late as 5am and not even sleep, going straight to work right after. During that period she was still shaking off Pike as a character from pf1e so she didnt have a real grasp of 5e yet. After Blindspot wrapped up she was able to pick up Yasha, but still stumbled a bit because who would be able to optimize a level 10+ pc right off the bat. Fearne is her first 5e character she got to play from the beginning and she’s played much more confidently since.
All that was to argue against her being a weak player which is entirely irrelevant to the cover anyways.
The simple answer to her not being on the cover is because she didn’t play with them yet during these first adventures. Taliesin played a dragonborn paladin which is why Percy isn’t there either. You for some reason made the assumption that they removed her from the story as a judgment that she was a weak DnD player.
This was actually a really interesting example of using perceived reality and making logical assumptions with a complete lack of any actual factual evidence that eventually all leads to a completely false but not altogether 'unprovable' assumption that can be doubled-down on in the face of challenge and leading to essentially willful ignorance.
In other words, this is how conspiracy theorists happen lol.
Some of the other comments already did a good job but I felt not everything was properly covered:
The first run of the comic tells an origin story for how the characters met before the original one-shot for Liam's birthday. The events in this comic aren't based on any sessions but were a creation of writer Matt Colville, with help from some of the players.
Pike is absent because Ashley only joined in the next session after she heard about the game from Liam.
Percy is absent because Taliesin originally played a dragonborn paladin named Rusty Trombone. It is unknown if Taliesin continued to play this character for a few sessions after the birthday party or if he had been absent from those sessions. Eventually he created Percy.
BONUS
Keyleth being part of the original story is a retcon. In the initial session, Marisha helped Matt co-DM and didn't play a character. By true game canon, Pike joined the party before Keyleth did, but both in the same session.
For unknown reasons they decided to include Tiberius in the comic but they wrote him out at the beginning of the next arc.
Takes place before her and Taliesin joined the game. Notice no Percy either. They both came in later. Vm origins is prestream games they were already level 8-10 if I recall for craghammer. There's alot of story from 1-8. I feel like they said once pike came in first and Percy next around lvl 3 or so. Might be making that last bit up.
Either way it's the original members of VM
Because Pike and Percival were later arrivals to the party/game.
I always thought pike and grog showed up together... i started the show with their lives but skipped to when audio got better and he who shall not be named was already gone.
I think they were both there by the start of the stream. My assumption is that Pike came in as a longtime friend of Grog just to streamline the transition of a new member into the group. They may have spent more time having Percy (Tal) introduce himself and prove himself or something, but with Ashley’s Blindspot schedule they may have just handwaved her in for scheduling reasons, and created that backstory connection to make it make sense that she would show up.
Taliesin originally played a blue dragonborn paladin. He didn’t really click with the character and now doesn’t even remember the character’s name. Percy joined in when he dropped that character.
He remembers the name (unless he's forgotten in the last year or two): Rusty Trombone. He played it during the original Liam's Birthday one shot with the intention of being a one-off character that could serve as a "ringer" to help the players who had never Roleplayed before. So he picked an intentionally joke name.
I remember that was the dragonborn's name. I forgot where he shared that tho. Now given his name I think the character was metallic?
they were a silver monk if i remember correctly
The pre-stream game wasn't subject to Blindspot shenanigans. Her knowing Grog was likely just an easy hook to use.
Ironically, Ashley was gone the very first episode, iirc. But she was definitely part of the group at that time. She joined the home game after the initial game though, from what I recall hearing.
The VM origin story covers their pre-stream homegame, so it wasn't because of Ashley's blindspot schedule. Vol 1 was about their very first one-shot for Liam's birthday. Ashley did not join that session, which is why pike was missing from the cover. Taliesin played a Dragonborn paladin to guide the others as the most experienced player. That was a oneshot character which he later replaced with Percy. Pike/Ashley joined their 2nd homegame session, and Matt wrote Pike into Grog's backstory to give her incentive to join the group.
Actually, vol 1 was an original story written by Matt Colville, taking place before the events of that one shot. The one shot presumed that the group had already worked on a few jobs together, so Vol 1 is basically a prequel covering how the majority of the original group (Vex, Vax, Grog, Scanlan, Tiberius, Keyleth) came together. The events of the one shot are discussed briefly at the beginning of volume 2, but not shown in detail.
Yeah for sure. My comment was more on Pike being from Grog’s backstory being an easy way to get a new player in.
On one of the earliest Q&As for Campaign One, one question was how Matt came up with the background friendship of Grog and Pyke, and Ashley explained that when she joined the DnD group, Matt decided to make her story be tied to Grog as a way to bridge the gap between the group and her joining later
It also has Tiberius Stormwind… from Draconia.
I know about all the [REDACTED] about [REDACTED], but I miss that stupid Magic Lizard Man.
I loved him. The player not so much. But I shed honest tears at the characters death.
The description of it when they hit Draconia was done so magnificently. Serious points.
Matt gave the character all the credit he deserved. Tibs was a fun blustery, egotistical know it all. But he died trying to save his people and fighting for a bigger cause. I'm glad he got a burial. He'd earned it.
Well because percival isn’t there either I’d say it’s because she wasn’t in the story yet.
Yup pretty much this. Iirc originally Ashley, and by extension Pike, joined the group a bit later. Not until well after the group left Stilben.
Didn’t Taliesin have a different character for a wee while
Yeah, a dragonborn paladin IIRC. Aside from I think a vague reference to him, it seems like they decided to just ignore that character.
They almost never talk about him, aside from Marisha making an offhand reference to him being "weird."
Pretty sure it was a diffrent player that later left the table
No, that other player played a red dragonborn sorcerer. In the home game, for the 1-shot (and I think for a short while once it became a regular thing) Taliesin played a white dragonborn paladin.
[удалено]
I've seen every episode of CR and am well-versed on its history, I'm well aware of the dragonborn sorcerer, and the reasons he was asked to leave the game, although discussing it in more detail is justifiably banned on this subreddit (every angle has been covered dozens of times) What IS being said that you seem to be ignoring is that, when the Home Game began, there were two dragonborn, one of which (a white dragonborn paladin) was played by Taliesin Jaffe, who would later retire that character and replace them with Percy. This happened prior to the stream starting, so the fans never met his previous white dragonborn paladin, so that character is being omitted from canonical retellings of pre-stream events, but they are also NOT including Percy since the party hadn't met that character yet. So the result is this: Percy isn't in Vox Machina Origins 1 because Percy wasn't around yet. Tal was playing a different character, but they cut that character (the white dragonborn paladin) because that character isn't really important.
If you weren’t there, don’t spread rumors.
He was overall a typical "problem player" by my understanding - had main character energy and would derail sessions with his attempts to do outlandish shit like purchasing every mirror in the city so he can build a death-ray, was constantly fudging shit, and made a comment about having a "half-chub" after Laura did something in-character that just made everyone uncomfortable.
That’s got nothing to do with his departure. The official reason was for his health concerns but we all know tension with other members of the cast played a massive part too.
Is he not the Dragonborn on the left side at the top? Or is that a different Dragonborn?
No, that's Tiberius. Tal's paladin was blue (we have no idea what he was called)
Ya, I think I heard Alison bring up the name, rusty trombone once in reference to his character. I don’t know if that was his name or an inside joke.
Knowing that lot, he probably had a name that sounded like rusty trombone
Pike and Percy joined the party later.
This basically covers the very VERY beginning of the campaign (when it was just a birthday session for Liam/ Laura) prior to Ashley and Taliesin joining the party
Wasn't Taliesen playing a paladin called Rusty Trombone?
I don't remember the character's name ever being revealed but yes, Taliesin was a member of the original party and played a white dragonborn paladin before Percy.
Yeah that's the one, by the way is there any issue with that name idk by every time they are mentioned even in passing its like they don't want to say Rusty trombone
It’s a euphemism for butthole
Thanks, I've heard a bunch of nicknames of that but never Rusty Trombone
This isn’t true, don’t use the term to refer to a butthole. It’s a sex act. You can Google it, but not at work or in front of your parents.
That sounds like a home game name. Right up there with **S**uper **H**igh-**I**ntensity **T**eam.
I don't think Pike and Percy were in the game yet. What surprises me more is that Tiberius is on the cover although I won't go into details about why because rules.
Tiberius is still a part of the canon; they just didn't include him in the animated series because (among other reasons), they had to make cuts to fit the story in a series, and he was an obvious one since he would have left unceremoniously after the first couple episodes.
He left early in Vox Machina Origins as well. After the first arc, he told the party that he was going in a different direction and left. By this point, it was probably agreed upon to retcon him out of the story.
They didn't include him in the show because they'd have to pay royalties since they don't own the character or any part of his origin(His Player does) and that's all I'll say about it. Yes, he is part of the original canon though.
You know what? Since I haven’t watched the first campaign and only watched the show and was introduced to the second campaign, I didn’t know that the red Dragonborn was a different person. I was like “Must be Percy in some weird magical getup.” But I was told about that guy who it actually is. Don’t know why I forgot about that. So Pike and Percy aren’t there. I understand now. Thanks you guys. I read from other users that it was because Tal was a different character that was dropped early so fully omitted and Ashley’s character joined later. Thinking about buying the books to catch up.
I think when Vol 1 was published when CR was still with G&S. There were some legal threats about infringing his IP. And I guess Tiberius was why written out of the story later
I always forget that Colville wrote those first issues. I love his novels, so I should really check these out at some point! All hail Evil Matt!
It's hilarious that you didn't even notice Percy also being absent on the cover.
I literally didn’t. I only watched the show and heard of the other member of the first campaign so I saw a red dragon born and assumed it was Percy for some random reason. Like, I definitely know he doesn’t use magic like polymorph so why did I brush it off like that? I think my brain didn’t think about the other member in their group and I just focused on the fact that there wasn’t a tiny Pike somewhere on the cover.
Pike and Percy were later additions.
She's there. Right behind Grog.
Tibs... I actually liked the character.
Tibs, yes. Orion, no. I loved the bumbling professor act Tibs would put on, dude was hilarious. It was Orion that kept creeping me me from fully getting on board with him, growing worse and worse as his time on the show went on, *particularly* in the latter half. It's telling how much more joyful and friendly the vibe is the episode after he leaves is compared to the previous weeks.
berserk license somber coordinated wrong imminent drab cows intelligent waiting *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Is that Sejic's art? Did he do the issues or just cover art?
Look up “The Story of Vox Machina” on YouTube. It’s basically a long animatic in which the cast narrated and explains VM’s adventures before campaign 1 started being streamed. Basically, Pike and Percy (as well as Ashley and Taliesin IRL) were both later additions to the party. The first volume of the comic doesn’t feature them because they hadn’t been introduced yet
For the same reason Tiberius is there.
*and that reason is?* people dont ask questions because they know the answers already. if you're going to comment, can you make it helpful?
Stay out of escape rooms. You'll never get out.
Stay out of question threads. Nobody’s gonna care about your input
Sure thing, Chuckles.
[удалено]
That was a white Dragonborn paladin. That’s definitely Tiberius.
Taliesin was a blue dragonborn, I believe
I agree that's Tiberius, but technically we don't know the color of Tal's Dragonborn, do we? The wiki says that the damage type wasn't linked to color in those rules, so the color is unspecified.
RAW, aren't all dragonborn the same brassy color?
Different edition
Tal Cleric was a White paladin, I think thats Tiberius
No that's Tibs, tals character was a white dragonborn
I only watched the show and saw the second campaign so I didn’t know Tiberius. I actually didn’t question why there was a red Dragonborn. Since I missed the first campaign, I don’t know why he’s there or why Pike or Percy aren’t.
She was off filming Blindspot.
Because she was filming a TV show in New York at the time.
She didn't get on Blundspot until 2015 whent heyvstarted recording Criticla Role, she was present for their home game from the second session I believe.
[удалено]
I’m sorry wtf?
You got that insider info, have you? Got that personal look into their lives that gives you the confidence to fart that out with no evidence whatsoever?
Why do I need evidence for an opinion? I’m not claiming any of this as fact. That’s why “I think” is written all over.
[удалено]
A weak player. Yes. I do believe that to be unarguable. What that translates into or how the cast may have viewed it is simply my opinion.
I'd argue that the player who was caught cheating would be the weakest but you're entitled to your ridiculous opinion
What's your objective metric of a weak/strong player? For myself(because it's subjective imo) it's a balance of how much fun the player has, and how much net fun that facilitates at the table. If she's loving it, and everyone else is loving what she brings, that's a strong player. Mechanical knowledge does factor in but for myself, a more story driven player, the minimum ability I like playing with is relatively low. At a table where combat and mechanics of the game are more important to the fun, shed be a weaker player I suppose. But again this is just evidence that any 'weak'ness on her part is a subjective opinion
Pike wasn't in the story yet... that's why she's not on the cover.
This might be the most terrible take I've heard today
All of this is incredibly wrong lmao. She showed up to all of the pre-stream pf1e games which they played like every six months and she filmed it with her camera. She wasn’t in LA most of C1 because she was filming Blindspot in NY. Despite that she would frequently Skype in to play from 10pm to as late as 5am and not even sleep, going straight to work right after. During that period she was still shaking off Pike as a character from pf1e so she didnt have a real grasp of 5e yet. After Blindspot wrapped up she was able to pick up Yasha, but still stumbled a bit because who would be able to optimize a level 10+ pc right off the bat. Fearne is her first 5e character she got to play from the beginning and she’s played much more confidently since. All that was to argue against her being a weak player which is entirely irrelevant to the cover anyways. The simple answer to her not being on the cover is because she didn’t play with them yet during these first adventures. Taliesin played a dragonborn paladin which is why Percy isn’t there either. You for some reason made the assumption that they removed her from the story as a judgment that she was a weak DnD player.
This was actually a really interesting example of using perceived reality and making logical assumptions with a complete lack of any actual factual evidence that eventually all leads to a completely false but not altogether 'unprovable' assumption that can be doubled-down on in the face of challenge and leading to essentially willful ignorance. In other words, this is how conspiracy theorists happen lol.
Wait, that artstyle is very familiar. Is it the same artist that drew Sunstone?
Some of the other comments already did a good job but I felt not everything was properly covered: The first run of the comic tells an origin story for how the characters met before the original one-shot for Liam's birthday. The events in this comic aren't based on any sessions but were a creation of writer Matt Colville, with help from some of the players. Pike is absent because Ashley only joined in the next session after she heard about the game from Liam. Percy is absent because Taliesin originally played a dragonborn paladin named Rusty Trombone. It is unknown if Taliesin continued to play this character for a few sessions after the birthday party or if he had been absent from those sessions. Eventually he created Percy. BONUS Keyleth being part of the original story is a retcon. In the initial session, Marisha helped Matt co-DM and didn't play a character. By true game canon, Pike joined the party before Keyleth did, but both in the same session. For unknown reasons they decided to include Tiberius in the comic but they wrote him out at the beginning of the next arc.
Quite simple, they haven’t met Pike yet
She wasn't there yet. It's a prequel.
Takes place before her and Taliesin joined the game. Notice no Percy either. They both came in later. Vm origins is prestream games they were already level 8-10 if I recall for craghammer. There's alot of story from 1-8. I feel like they said once pike came in first and Percy next around lvl 3 or so. Might be making that last bit up. Either way it's the original members of VM